Well, that's how it's being marketed anyway, but if I understand the full details (and I possibly don't), Urobuchi Gen's involvement in this isn't actually that active, as he only came up with the original concept, and Takayama Katsuhiko is in charge of the script (who has a decent background in adaptations like the first anime version of FMA as well as ef: memories and melodies... and also two of the Boku no Pico OVAs, if that counts for anything). The director in this case is Aoki Ei who most will remember was also in charge of Fate/Zero (and the hugely underrated Wandering Son), while it's being animated by A-1, who have been a little bit hit and miss in recent times.

I'm not sure what I think of Urobuchi's recent trend of pitching mecha series after the let-down that was Gargantia. I'm still confused as to what he brings to the genre, and if his track record previous is an indication, he's definitely more comfortable with psychological thrillers (examples too numerous to list). He could carve out a serious niche in an underrepresented genre and no-one would disrespect him for it, but like most people in the industry who establish a reputation, there comes a point where one feels the overwhelming urge to branch out and try something new, which is pretty much how I see his recent foray into the mecha genre. What I'm a little bit disappointed in is that he's not taking a more active role in this project. If it fails, he can just take his hands away and say "I only came up with the original concept... I didn't actually write the script". I'd like to see him own it, and for the marketing/hype campaign in the lead up (which seems to have his name plastered all over it, at least in the places I've seen it) to have a bit of truth about it. On the other side of the coin, he is a busy man, and that second season of Psycho Pass isn't going to write itself. Someone has to keep the moe out

Spoiler for Hiden:

(as if to imply that Psycho Pass wasn't the most intensely moe anime of whatever year it came out.)

With Gargantia Gen literally only wrote the first and last episode scripts. The quality of the mid portions of that show is indicative of his absence throughout the production. He was not credited as series creator, which is what he is for this show. That and he will be planning out the general story with people at Nitro+. From interviews and stuff, script composition by Takayama is literally just compiling whatever Gen and the others churn out into watchable TV episodes.

As far as I am concerned, he really does OWN this project. Gargantia? Not so much.

Garganita was the Director's story/creation. Gen was brought in early, and his touch was very noticeable. It's quite a grounded sci-fi series. And, for that series, the mistake was getting our main cast off the Gargantia.

As for what Gen brings to this concept: it's a Mecha, but it's really a Earth/Mars war. I think that's right up his skill set.

So, random tidbit: Ei Aoki directed Ga Rei: Zero, Fate/Zero, and is now doing Aldnoah.Zero. Common points are the zeroes and the liberal punctuation.

I am happy about his involvement in this; he's done Wandering Son and one of the best KnK movies, he knows how to make shows look pretty without motion, and, to a degree, how to make his visuals reinforce infodump. Those skills are well-suited to space-opera scifi.

Interesting we have a thread before the show even starts. I'm like as mixed as I've ever been and have possibly never been less sure if I'm going to enjoy a show or not. On the one hand mecha is my favorite genre and on paper the staff sounds interesting....but then on paper the staff sounds interesting and like it could be a hit based on pulling in each individual staff members respective fanbase alone, which each individual key staffer is popular enough to legitimately have. Last time Aniplex went to this much trouble to pull in this many big names and stick them on a show they claimed was going to be the next bleeding edge thing in anime we got the flashy but utterly nonsensical Guilty Crown which couldn't decide even for a couple episodes at a time what direction it wanted to go in if any. Plus I just find Aniplex's big hyped up shows that they make grandoise promises about never seem to work out and it's like they expect that they can just assemble all these big names and leave it at that. It's really almost comical just how many of the most hyped and IMO tremendously overrated staffers they've assembled for this one, like they are trying to give sites like MAL a raging hard on or something. You've got Gen Urobuchi who is probably the most well known name in writing for anime right now, Ei Aoki who directed the tremendously hyped but ultimately pretty solid Fate/Zero, Hiroyuki Sawano who I used to like but is now just phoning it in with his standard "epic" sound and just really badly sung German lyric songs that tend to feel out of place, Yuki Kaijuri who I've never understood the popularity of cause so many of her soundtracks just kind of sound like generic choral chants.....honestly the more this show tries to sell itself to me the more I kind of feel like backing up from it a bit the way overzealous peddlers in street markets tend to sketch me out. It's like somebody is trying to hard somewhere and not confident in the shows ability to sell itself on it's own that they need to lure people in and keep them hyped up using big names, promises like it will surpass the Gundam franchise and just kind of an overbearing blanket advertisement campaign that makes the likes of Love Live look positively modest.

It's a shame because instead of thinking, "Oh cool new mecha series, this could be solid summer time fun" I'm now thinking "Okay what are they hiding and what are they trying to distract me from initially". In any case this will probably be the most watched mecha anime in a long time based on the sheer hype value of the staff alone and people watching it just based off of those names whether they are a fan of the genre or not or even understand it's history and what has and hasn't been attempted before so the commentary on it should prove nothing if not interesting.

By the way perhaps the OP is not informed of it, but Gen Urobuchi will not be writing the second Psycho Pass season or seemingly be involved at all. That will be handled by Tow Ubukata (GiTS, Mardock Scramble). Frankly not surprised though given recent trends with the guy and now I'm starting to think Urobuchi might not even be an active writer anymore at all but just a name that Aniplex puts on a box in order to try to sell a product harder to fanboys. I can't really say I have much respect for the guy these days since he's seemingly not doing much of any real active work, what he apparently has worked actively on involves his thematic stuff starting to become stale and just kind of centered around mean-spirited and nihilistic twists that shit on altruistic concepts (too one-sided and "for the shock value" IMO), and for IMO caving too easily to producer demands on some recent projects. Like if he's just going to sit back and collect based off of reputation from past works and not actually do anything I just don't see how I can have much reason to care about the guys name being on stuff anymore.

Imagine I've had all that to say about this shows staff before the show even airs. The producers behind this project totally know what they're doing no doubt, it's just a matter if whether it'll all be worth it in the end.

I have learned to get out of the hype train by not setting foot on MAL forums(unless it's a series that i like or wanted to post to) or any other big anime forums.

And honestly, i like Gargantia. It's a nice change of pace and i like the fact that it's more slice-of-life. Gen only wrote the first and last episode i believe.

Its other things than that. All the producers really had to do was keep their damn mouths shut and let the trailers do the talking and I would have been highly anticipating this one but now they've made some of the most ridiculous and arrogant claims I've ever heard and now the show has basically become something of a big hype joke during the lead up to it. I also just don't think that Gen Urobuchi is the sole solution to all problems. I honestly couldn't care less if he's writing it or not as long as its good, but a lot apparently seems to hinge on it for many people obviously. It'll be cool if this show gets to be about the show and not some big shot writers presence or not on the project.

I have learned to get out of the hype train by not setting foot on MAL forums(unless it's a series that i like or wanted to post to) or any other big anime forums.

And honestly, i like Gargantia. It's a nice change of pace and i like the fact that it's more slice-of-life. Gen only wrote the first and last episode i believe.

All the producers really had to do was keep their damn mouths shut and let the trailers do the talking and I would have been highly anticipating this one but now they've made some of the most ridiculous and arrogant claims I've ever heard and now the show has basically become something of a big hype joke during the lead up to it.

Ah, so for the most part they are like game devs of the modern video game industry. I have never watched those videos because most of their videos are blocked in my country.

I kinda think opening posts on this board should provide more information/previewing of the show so I'm trying to set an example. A first impression doesn't really serve someone who knows nothing about the show because the vast majority of impressions written on forums in general make the assumption that the reader has already watched the first episode.

Edit: One thing I really should make a habit of doing in OP posts is providing a link to the trailer as well. I just assumed the trailer was in the CR news link I posted.

I kinda think opening posts on this board should provide more information/previewing of the show so I'm trying to set an example. A first impression doesn't really serve someone who knows nothing about the show because the vast majority of impressions written on forums in general make the assumption that the reader has already watched the first episode.

Edit: One thing I really should make a habit of doing in OP posts is providing a link to the trailer as well. I just assumed the trailer was in the CR news link I posted.

I like that idea, often times how you think a show will turn out as its being promoted versus how it actually turns out can be a story in and of itself.

I kinda think opening posts on this board should provide more information/previewing of the show so I'm trying to set an example. A first impression doesn't really serve someone who knows nothing about the show because the vast majority of impressions written on forums in general make the assumption that the reader has already watched the first episode.

Edit: One thing I really should make a habit of doing in OP posts is providing a link to the trailer as well. I just assumed the trailer was in the CR news link I posted.

I like that idea, often times how you think a show will turn out as its being promoted versus how it actually turns out can be a story in and of itself.

So basically this is Gundam except in an alternate universe where Zeon has taken over. Like Fate/Zero, there doesn't seem to be a big focus on the main protagonist; rather, the show employs a a rather sizable ensemble cast. The characterization is pretty nice, but the MC is L-ELF levels of autistic, or perhaps she has a heart of stone like Emiya Kiritsugu. Regardless the show does have a kind of gravity that seems to be missing in a lot of anime that tries to be serious. The final scene where the children ironically talks about peace feels misplaced, but the rest of the episode felt solid.

This is straight up Turn A Gundam, which is really funny because I've been watching it for the past couple weeks. Only difference is that the main character isn't from Mars, but other than that it's about the same. Not much happened this episode, but I have faith it will be good.

Logged

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